Bolognese Sauce Recipe

During a nail spa pampering spree with my sister, I flipped through quite a bunch of O Magazines. Now while I am quite aware that Oprah is well known for her feel good/self-help stuff, the articles that I was drawn to the most were those that talked about food (But of course!). I came across a recipe of Bolognese, the kind that takes about 4 hours to make and is hopefully nothing like those bland or oftentimes too sweet "Bolognese" pasta that most restaurants I've been to serve. The article spoke so romantically about this recipe that I swore to try this recipe for myself.

I didn't have a pen with me to take down the recipe but I did have a camera phone. Thank heavens for technology!

Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:

1 medium onion
1 large or 2 small carrots
2 to 3 stalks celery
1 ounce pancetta, very finely chopped
1 pound ground beef (not lean)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch allspice
1 cup whole milk
1 cup dry white wine
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with their juice
1 pound pasta, such as rigatoni
Parmiggiano-Reggiano cheese, for grating

Procedure:

1. Finely chop onion, carrot, and celery. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven over low heat, cook pancetta until all fat is rendered and pancetta is just beginning to brown. Add chopped vegetables, raise heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent and soft.

2. Add ground beef, breaking it up with a spoon, 1/4 tsp. (to start) salt, plus pepper and allspice. Cook until meat is brown.

3. Add milk. When it begins to simmer, reduce heat to low and cook at a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally until milk has mostly boiled away, about 30 minutes. Add white wine and cook as with milk, until it has mostly boiled away. Add tomatoes and juice; bring to a simmer. Cover pot, reduce heat to low, and allow sauce to cook very gently at barest simmer, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Season to taste with remaining sauce.

4. Just before sauce is done, bring a pot of water to boil, salt it generously and boil pasta according to package directions. Drain, mix with a third of sauce then serve with remaining sauce on top with lots of grated Parmigiano cheese.
Makes 4 cups sauce